An electrophotographic image-forming device is configured to form images on a recording paper by transferring toner onto the paper and thermally fixing the toner to the paper. As such image-forming device, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-83823 discloses an image-forming device provided with a fixing unit having a fixing roller and a heating roller, and a cover positioned above the fixing unit that is capable of being opened and closed. When recording paper becomes jammed in the fixing unit, the user of the image-forming device can easily remove the jammed sheet of recording paper by opening the cover to expose the area around the nip portion between the fixing roller and heating roller.
Further, an image-forming device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-93587 has a pair of discharge rollers, a fixing unit for thermally fixing toner images to recording sheets, a discharge guide for guiding the recording sheets to the discharge rollers following a fixing operation, and a cover provided around these components.
Further, a fixing device used in conventional electrophotographic image-forming devices, such as laser printers disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-26411, is configured to thermally fix a toner image transferred onto a recording sheet, such as a sheet of paper. One such fixing device known in the art has a heating roller (heating rotary body), a pressure roller, and a thermistor element. The thermistor element is a non-contact thermistor that detects the temperature of the heating rotary body without contacting the surface thereof.